TROUT MASK REPLICA

This isn't one of those albums one idealises as the epitome of prog rock. This is an album where people begin to question the credentials of progressive rock. Okay, I have to admit that the Captain's vocals sound like what Ian Anderson might have been thinking of when he came up with ''Aqualung'', and the compositions sound like vomit and turds.

It can get to be a bigger headache with the random a capella pieces scattered in there like ''Well'' and the studio goofing off like at the beginning of ''Pena'' (Captain and producer Frank Zappa can't narrate an over-elaborated story without giggling). In other words, from the cover to the songs to the structures, this sounds like a total mess.

However, after listening to the album a couple of times, I got this feeling that the album sounds too random to be improvised (paradox?). There's plenty of great bluesy avant-rock meat to sink your teeth into like the ''Hair Pie'' bakes, ''Moonlight in Vermont'', ''Pachuco Cadaver'', ''Hobo Chang Ba'' and ''Veteran's Day Poppy''. My only true problem is that there are simply WAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY too many tracks for this to be truly worthy.

Any newcomer to Captain Beefheart might want to get SAFE AS MILK first, as it is, well, safer than this album. However, to all of those with an open mind, TROUT MASK REPLICA is worth a try.